Radio Interview, Cheating and “Local News”

Okay, so maybe this is cheating, but it’s the wee hours of the last day of Poetry Month and I am only on Day 28 here, and maybe you missed the link to this before. The audio was more than halfway down the page. So instead of a fresh recording I’ll bring you one that I only linked to back on the 20th.

That day I was posting a recording of Edna St. Vincent Milay’s Poem “To Kathleen,” and I didn’t consider the reading of my own poem in the link a contender for the Poem-a-Day recording project. But due to special dispensation granted by my poetry boss–yes, that would be me–I have decided that if I actually upload the audio to the blog, it will be close enough.

Today Cary Burkett of WITF FM in Harrisburg gave me the go-ahead to share this directly. So here’s the story behind it, as written in the audio file’s description, with a few of my characteristic links tossed in for those adventurous net surfers among you:

In October of 2012 I participated in a radio interview about the Commonwealth Poetry Reading at the State Capitol of Pennsylvania. Marjorie Maddox, Jerry Wemple, Melanie Simms, Nate Gaddison and I read in the East Wing Rotunda. Governor’s wife and Chair of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Susan Corbet was in attendance that day, and the cameras were rolling for WITF’s Television station.

The interview was conducted by Cary Burket on WITF FM along with fellow Commonwealth poet Melanie Simms. Part of that interview was aired on Saturday, April 20th for the station’s new “Poetry Corner” feature during the live music show called Center Stage. This is the full six minutes, and it includes my reading of a poem I’ve called “Local News.”

Post navigation

Lovely, lovely poem. Your perspective and humor are engaging, David. And I have the same experience that you describe of hearing some words come together, not knowing where they’ll take me, surprised to find that I’ve been gifted a poem – from where? – I tend to think sacred space.

Okay…that kind of news totally describes my hometown….loved hearing some of your history…had to laugh lived in Indiana for a while also…your poem and its reading was to me what poetry is about…such a marvelous story told well..bravo!

Ah, thank you, Charles! That means a lot to me. What part of Indiana did you live in then? Yes, the neighborhoods there were much as the ones here, except this town is surrounded by water, hills and trees, whereas out there it was surrounded by flat corn and soybean fields! 🙂

It’s funny, I think Tilly mentioned something about my conversational voice, as apposed to my reading voice. It might come from my past years in radio, but I don’t know. I hope it’s not a huge disparity.

No, it’s not a big difference between the two voices. Just that conversation is much more free flowing, and your personality shines through… whereas in reading, you’re ‘acting’ or ‘performing’ someone else’s words. You might leave a bit of yourself in the words, but, really, it’s the poets voice one hears.

So, this was a treat… sort of like being a part of a conversation with you.

How wonderful to hear you in conversation here! You’re funny and engaging, and I really enjoyed hearing more backstory about you as a writer.

And I definitely hear you about missing the PA hills while you were in Indiana! (After growing up near the Sierras, I was baffled and disoriented in central-valley California, where I couldn’t see the mountains.)

“I like my news face to face and second hand”–I smile at this line every time!